Tuesday tutorial: Pretty boxes and containers

Hello! I hope your week has been off to a great start. For this week's tutorial, I was thinking ahead a bit, but we're already into the time of the year when there are so many get togethers and times when you might need a pretty container for small gifts, place setting treats, etc, and that's what I wanted to work on. It's always nice to have some pretty boxes and containers already on hand. So if you'd like to join me in making some pretty boxes this week you're going to need:

You'll also need some vintage wallpaper scraps, old lace, vintage hankies, ribbons, etc, and a strong adhesive. (I used my standard The Ultimate glue as it just works on everything!) I quickly embellished several different styles of the boxes and I'll share with you how I did them. You can turn an ordinary box into something lovely easily and quickly.

First, let's start with the sliding boxes. For the first one, I just grabbed a vintage hankie, tore it in half, and adhered it all the way around the box. As you can seen in the photo, I glued the edges of hankie to the inside of the box. I then cut a strip of the hankie and simply glued it to the edges of the sliding box as well. Finish it off with a bit of vintage lace tied around the box. You could further embellish this box style with a monogram, a photo, small tag, etc. This box took me about 10 minutes to create.

This sliding box was one of those times where I had an idea, but it didn't really go where I was wanting it too, and so I kept adding, and in the end, I still wasn't thrilled with it, but that's ok. It happens. :) To create this box, I covered the box with a bit of vintage, pale pink eyelet, and then layered some vintage lace on top of that. On the little metal frame (left over from my scrapbooking days) I added some more of the vintage eyelet, a bit of an embroidered vintage hankie, a crocheted edging torn from yet another hankie, and a bow made of torn fabric. This box took me about 20 minutes to make, but really that was just because I kept messing with it trying to get it how I wanted it. The sliding boxes are great for gifting all sorts of small treats and treasures!

Next, let's work on the window box. You could put just about anything behind the cut out in this box. I used fabric on both, but I think a photo or pretty paper would be lovely as well.

The window boxes arrive flat and unassembled which makes it super easy to add a bit of glue and a scrap of paper or fabric to the back side as shown in the photos above. Then simply put the box together and they're ready to further embellish. It the box above, I added a bit of vintage trim, and tied a bow with a bit of pretty torn fabric. This box took me about 5 minutes to put together. Easy, peasy. The window boxes are great for gifting soap, small candy or treats, playing cards, (atc's!) or even petite stationery sets.

Next, lets whip up some embellished round boxes.

This box was the easiest box to create, but still lovely I think. I just glued a bit of vintage wallpaper around the box, put the lid back on, and tied a tulle bow on top. It took about 5 minutes to create, and this is a perfect way to use up those treasured vintage wallpaper scraps.

For this box, I used the same materials I already had out, the vintage trim, torn fabric ribbon, and a bit of crocheted edging I tore from a vintage hankie. Glued it all together, and that's it. Maybe 10 minutes to complete...The round boxes are wonderful for gifting cookies, nuts, candy, small candles, etc.

So that's it! As you can see, the boxes are easy to embellish and make them your own, plus it's so nice to have a collection of little boxes and containers on hand for a quick gift. I think any of these boxes would also make great favor containers, or personalized place settings.

As always, if you have any questions please email me! I'm happy to help. If you make some embellished boxes, please let me know, I would love to see.